Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World) [Kindle Edition]

Douglass C. North (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Anyone with an interest in world poverty can benefit from this carefully crafted and closely argued book. It is a pleasure and a delight to read.
(Paul Ormerod Times Higher Education )

[North] sets forth a radical reconceptualization of the task and methods of the social sciences in general and economics in particular, providing a glimpse at an economics that refuses to 'assume a can opener.'
(Will Wilkinson Cato Journal )

[This book] provides a sweeping view of the relationships among human belief systems, social institutions, and what [North] calls 'the adaptive efficiency' of societies in coping with changes in demographics, technology, and other factors.
(Richard N. Cooper Foreign Affairs )

A courageous attempt to enlarge the arsenal of theoretical tools available for economists.
(Diego Rios Journal of Evolutionary Economics )

Review

Just as Douglass North's earlier classic, Institutions and Institutional Change, ushered in the revolution in understanding institutions that dominated the nineties, his new book, Understanding the Process of Economic Change, seeks an equally revolutionary change. North now integrates the cognitive component into this analysis: how the mind works, how we form beliefs and understandings about the world, and how societies solve--or fail to solve--the problems they face. This book is vintage North.
(Barry Weingast, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University )

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 654 KB
• Print Length: 201 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0691118051
• Publisher: Princeton University Press; Revised edition (January 3, 2005)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0026IUP1I
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,260 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Thesis, ponderous writing, October 5, 2008

By 

H. N. Teixeira (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World) (Hardcover)

Having attended several lectures by Dr. North I know him to be a brilliant man, but not the most engaging communicator.

This book has a small summation of several important ideas of the role of uncertainty and technological change, and how economic actors move to adapt to these. Nothing could be more topical these days. Unfortunately, I find the writing unnecessarily dense and even the simplest issues are treated in a verbose manner. I always love reading Hayek, Friedman, Mandelbrot and so many others; but despite my great interest in the subject reading this book was a chore.

Only for the technical experts or very motivated enthusiasts.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts out great but fizzles out, December 25, 2006

By 

Michael Emmett Brady "mandmbrady" (Bellflower, California ,United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World) (Hardcover)

North starts his book out emphasizing the important role played in economic development by the uncertainty of the future that impacts the decision makers whose actions will create technological and institutional change over time.This uncertainty is the uncertainty emphasized by Schumpeter,Keynes,Knight,Ellsberg,and Mandelbrot( or mild risk versus wild risk),as opposed to the risk emphasized by neoclassical economics in the form of the standard deviation of a normal probability distribution.Throughout the book North correctly emphasizes uncertainty and not risk as being the environment in which decision makers make choices that will determine future economic growth and change.Unfortunately,North devotes only one small paragraph on p.13 to this vital distinction(uncertainty versus risk).North needs to have spent much more time and pages carefully covering this distinction since it is crucial to understanding the process of economic change .North needs to provide the reader with at least two chapters devoted to covering the risk versus uncertainty topic.The only readers who will benefit from this book would be readers who have already read the relevant works of Knight ,Keynes,Schumpeter,Ellsberg,and Mandelbrot that deal with this topic.I would recommend that a potential reader first cover chapters 7 and 8 of Knight's 1921 book,Risk,Uncertainty and Profit ,and then read chapter 7 on the business cycle from Schumpeter's 1912 book The Theory of Economic Development.North needs to substantially revise the book .His preliminary chapter on cognitive psychology can be filled out more completely once he has added the chapters on uncertainty and its impact on the irreversible nature of investment in long run,long lived, physical,durable capital goods which is " cast in concrete " and essentially irrevocable.

23 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Economic Change For the Business Executive, November 23, 2005

By 

Kenneth D. Gartrell "www.kengartrell.com/BLOG/" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Process of Economic Change (Princeton Economic History of the Western World) (Hardcover)

I think everyone interested in general business, economics or business strategy should read this book. For some a topic as big as the one Professor North is tackling here might require thousands of pages and a great deal of analytical complexity.

Most students of economics recognize Nobel Prize winner Douglass North and his work. As a specialized student of management, finance and accounting, I am not qualified to analyze the work in relation to its place in the professional field of economics -- although I understand its intentions and direction. My review rather focuses on the relevance of Professor North's statement in this book as a guide for my students of corporate strategy, business policy, finance and accounting; including as well my many clients in executive positions and the practice of law.

The systems view of economic change provided by Professor North casts light on long-term organizational thinking and helpful to our search for corporate and business strategy models in the increasingly efficient capital market environment revealed by modern financial economics.


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